From October 6 to October 20, the Brooklyn Nets played six pre-season games with four different teams and they chalked up a miserable 1-5 win-loss record.
They lost twice each to the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks, lost one to the rebuilding Miami Heat, and surprisingly pulled out a win against the Detroit Pistons.
The Nets are set to make their NBA 2016-17 regular season debut against the Boston Celtics at the TD Garden on October 26 and if their two tune-up games with the team are indications, the Brooklyn squad is bound to start its campaign with a loss.
As the new team leader and franchise player of the Brooklyn Nets, Jeremy Lin is really up against a formidable challenge in turning things around for his new team, his sixth NBA team in seven years following stints with the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks, the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Charlotte Hornets.
Not counting his brief spell called Linsanity while playing for the Knicks, Jeremy Lin’s best season happened last year while playing as a back-up point guard to Kemba Walker in Charlotte.
But the offer of being a starting point guard for a team is very hard to refuse, notwithstanding the fact that it also came with a $36 million contract for three years and Jeremy Lin is off to the races with the Nets.
Leading his team in key categories
During the six pre-season games of the Brooklyn Nets, Jeremy Lin proved that he is worth of his pay as he led his team in both points and assists per game.
He averaged a respectable 17.2 points per game and a remarkable 5.6 assists per game in those six pre-season matches. At those averages, he was actually contributing close to 30 points per game to the Nets offense.
Trevor Booker led the team in rebounding with 6.8 caroms per game. It is surprising that Brook Lopez was not in any of the three major categories, which means that Jeremy Lin did not get any support from the other half of the so-called ‘Brook-Lin.’
It was obvious that the Nets found it difficult to win in all its six pre-season games. It won its first game against the Pistons before losing five straight, including three blowout losses to the Knicks, the Heat, and the Celtics.
Unless Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson does something magical soon like adding a new scorer to his team, it looks like Jeremy Lin is bound for another disappointing season, similar to his time with the Los Angeles Lakers where the team piled up more losses than fans never thought to happen to a championship-savvy franchise.
Or it could also be the first year of a major re-tooling for the Nets with Jeremy Lin as the first piece of the puzzle. Whether he can wait or consistently be as prolific still when the next pieces come around to the team remains to be seen but it is obvious that his decision to play with the Nets meant that he wants to take on a bigger role in a team that no NBA team are willing to do thus far.
The ingredient of successful teams
Jeremy Lin, in a recent interview, actually took a swipe at three of his former teams for not having great camaraderie.
He explained that teams that are close together are the teams that are more successful. He said that he has been in locker rooms where guys did not get along and there are tension and hostility that cut away at what the team is trying to accomplish.
He said that his one-year stint with the Charlotte Hornets enabled him to see that the Hornets is a successful team because there is a lot of chemistry, which is also the reason why the team made it to the playoffs during the past season, notes Yibada.